| Lincoln Financial Fired
Lesnik amid Wells Fargo Bankruptcy,
Unspecified Settlement Mid-Trial
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Patreon
BBC
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SDNY COURTHOUSE,
August 12 -- Jeffrey Lesnik
was a stock broker working for
Lincoln Financial Advisors
Corporation when they fired
him in November 2017, he says
because he had filed a
bankruptcy petition due to
misdeeds by Wells
Fargo.
Jump to February
28, 2020, when Lesnik's
lawsuit against Lincoln
Financial, reassigned to Judge
Lewis J. Liman, still
relatively new in the U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York,
came up for a status
conference.
Lesnick's
lawyer Seamus P. Barrett of
the Derek Smith Law Group PLLC
said he too might file a
motion for summary judgment.
Judge Liman said, if you want
to spend your client's money
that way.
Barrett replied, We work on a
pure contingency fee basis, so
we only file a motion if we
think we will prevail.
Judge
Liman replied that whether
counsel before him are paid by
the hour or on contingency, he
presumes they have a basis for
the motions they file, under
Rule 11, until he's shown
differently.
Barrett
brought up the possibility of
Judge Liman referring the case
to a Magistrate Judge for
settlement talks. Judge Liman,
with Inner City Press openly
in the otherwise empty
gallery, asked the parties if
they agreed to have the court
reporter stop transcribing.
They did.
Lincoln
Financial's lawyer said her
client is willing to negotiate
but that Plaintiff is asking
for too much. Then she named
the figure, which for now we
omit in this format. More on
Patreon here.
On June 22,
2020 Judge Liman held another
proceeding, which Inner City
Press also covered. Judge
Liman explained that an August
trial in this civil trial was
not going to happen.
On August
5, 2021, Judge Liman held a
proceeding on motions in
limine. He ruled that there is
not a right to a jury trial in
this case. Soon came the joke
that FINRA will not have to be
explained to lay jurors. Talk
turned to others who were
terminated.
On August 10, the
bench trial before Judge Liman
ran all the way to 6 pm. There
was talk of dissatisfied
customers, drinking, with the
liaison to FINRA on tap for
August 11. Judge Liman said he
thought it would be finished
on Thursday; now it open to
Friday 12:30 pm or even into
the next week.
Then on August
11, this: "The Court has been
informed that the parties have
reached a settlement... The
action is dismissed." And
that's it. Or is it?
The case is
Leznik v. Lincoln Financial,
18-cv-3656 (Liman).
***
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